In the first week of November 2022, tech work witnessed Apple becoming more valuable tech company in the United States as shares of Amazon and Meta declined to historical lows. There were also some very significant announcements from social media companies. The industry also witnessed some tech companies suffering huge losses in the capital markets while other companies surge in valuations.
Major Tech News
1 – German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter raised 182 million dollars which will help the tech startup to build the public infrastructure which is needed to set up an urban air mobility ecosystem. The company based in Bruchsal, Germany plans to start services of their eVTOL air taxi in Paris, Singapore, and Rome by 2024. The company awaits necessary certifications and approvals for air taxi flights.
A crewed test flight of the Volocity eVTOL occurred a few weeks ago out of a vertiport in Rome to demonstrate what a flight between the city and the airport would look like. Once Volocopter gains certification, small flights like this one will be available on specific routes.
2 – chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Elon Musk said a few days ago that the social networking company will not reinstate banned accounts before the US midterm elections. The upcoming midterm elections in the North American country are expected to decide the upcoming future of political America.
There were concerns among netizens that the new CEO will bring back accounts of some celebrities and influential people who got kicked out of the Twitter platform for their controversial statements or actions on the social media platforms. This includes the Twitter account of the former president of the united states, Donald Trump who got booted off Twitter for inciting last year’s attack on the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Musk said in a tweet that the company will not reinstate banned accounts, if at all, “until we have a clear process for doing so” and “for at least few more weeks”
3 – Social media platform Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms, has rolled out a feature that will let users Make and Sell NFTs Directly in the app. The test feature which was rolled out in nearly 100 countries will allow Instagram users to connect their digital wallets and showcase the NFTs on the platform’s feed.
4—Smartphone company Apple is now more valuable than other tech companies in the GAMMA group, such as Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta. As the valuation of Amazon.com Inc and Meta tumbled in capital markets over the last week, strong revenue growth and earnings pushed the stock of Apple upwards.
The market value of Apple is currently standing at a whopping 2.3907 trillion dollars making it more valuable than Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta. Over the past month, value of Apple shares one up by more than 4 percent signaling strong confidence among investors and traders.
5 – Multinational investment company BlackRock Inc raised 4.5 billion dollars which will be put to use for projects related to climate change and the protection of the environment. BlackRock has so far raised nearly 7.5 billion dollars out of the target of 8 billion for a new fund that will focus on projects surrounding climate change.
The new fund will invest in five main sectors: energy, low-carbon power, transport and logistics, regulated utilities, and digital infrastructure.
